Found Poetry
Saumensch!
A word that The book thief was familiar with.
"You will die" is what death said.
But Liesel wanted more.
More than death, and more than a happy life.
Saukerl!
A name that best friends used, Rudy Stiener.
Her friend, her best friend.
Mein Kampf.
My struggle.
Not just the struggle he went through
But everyone else who struggled, too.
"The smell of friendship"
In the beginning this was everywhere,
now, just death.
By: Ashton


HANS "PAPA" HUBERMANN
"You call him Papa, verstehst?" The marked it.
The beginning of a new end, it made her want to throw a fit.
"Leave her alone. Leave her to me." This was the first time,
and she knew he'd always call her "mine".
"Let's get this midnight class started." is what he said,
whenever he found the book under her nightmared bed.
"Hans belonged to that 10%" He would never follow the Nazi leader.
And with Liesel, he'd always heed her.
"Hans Hubermann held his hand out and presented a piece of bread."
And awaiting the Nazi's he simply did dread.
Poem by: Megan

Rudy Steiner - the boy next door who was obsessed with the black American athlete Jesse Owens.
..was a snowball smashing into her face. Half of it was mud. It stung like crazy. "How do you like that?" The boy grinned..
"Saukrel," Liesel whispered.
A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.
He liked girls a lot, and he liked Liesel.
THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN A BOY WHO HATES YOU
A boy who loves you.
It was the lover boy coming out of him "If I beat you, I get to kiss you."
"One day Liesel," he said, "you'll be dying to kiss me."
There was no request for a kiss. Nothing like that. You could love Rudy for that, if you like.
"Does this mean I don't get a kiss for teaching you?"
"Hey!" The sound of the stranded.
Instinctively, Liesel ran back.
"How about a kiss, Saumensch?" He said.
How about a kiss?
How about a kiss?
Poor Rudy.
He'd have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips.
He'd love it all right.
..but kissing Rudy Steiner was something entirely different.
Smiling sadly on the step, he called out, rummaging a hand through his hair. "One day," he warned her. "One day Liesel!"
In the basement, just over two years later, Liesel ached sometimes to go next door and see him, even if she was writing in the early hours of morning.
"No point asking if I get a kiss for that, I guess?"
"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"
In truth, I think he was afraid, Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for is so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.
"Her boyfriend," Papa mentioned..
"He is not my boyfriend,"..
Liesel held Rudy's hand, and her Mama's.
A new hand held Liesel's now, and when she looked in horror next to her, Rudy Steiner swallowed as Hans Hubermann was whipped on the street.
They only walked home together with aching feet and tired hears.
"Don't come Liesel." But Liesel came.
"Liesel!" She knew that person.
He was calling out. She could see his tortured face and yellow hair. "Liesel, get out of there!"
The boy arrived. His lanky legs crouched and he called over, to his left.
"Tommy, get out here and help me. we have to get her up. Tommy hurry!" He lifted the book thief by her armpits. "Liesel come on, you have to get off the road."
Hands were clamped upon her from behind and the boy next door brought her down. He forced her knees to the road and suffered the penalty. He collected her punches as if they were presents. Her bony hands and elbows were accepted with nothing but a few short moans. He accumulated the loud, clumsy specks of saliva and tears as if they were lovely to his face, and more important, he was able to hold her down.
On Munich Street, a boy and girl were entwined. They were twisted and comfortless on the road. Together the watched the humans disappear. They watched them dissolve, like moving tablets in the humid air.
Thank you, Rudy. For everything. For helping me off the road, for stopping me...
Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or had she always loved him? It's likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn't matter where. Her mouth, her neck, her cheek. Her skin was empty for it, waiting.
She was saying goodbye and she didn't even know it.
It was the boy's hair she saw first.
Rudy?
He lay with yellow hair and closed eyes, and the book thief ran toward him and fell down. She dropped the black book. "Rudy." She sobbed, "wake up . . ." She grabbed him by his shirt and gave him just the slightest disbelieving shake. "Wake up, Rudy," and now, as the sky went on heating and showering ask, Liesel was holding Rudy Steiner's shirt by the front. "Rudy, please." The tears grappled with her face. "Rudy, please, wake up, G*ddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come one, Jesse Owens, don't you know that I love you, wake up, wake up . . . ." But nothing cared.
A beautiful, tear- stomped girl, shaking the dead.
But the boy did not wake.
In disbelief, Liesel buried her head into Rudy's chest.
She leaned down and looked at his lifeless face and Liesel kissed her best friend, Rudy Steiner, soft and true on his lips. She kissed him long and soft, and when she pulled herself away, she touched his mouth with her fingers.
She did not say goodbye. She was incapable, and after a few more minutes at his side, she was able to tear herself from the ground.
By:Mariel